Kids Doing Science

This blog will follow the creation and implementation of a first through fourth grade science curriculum. This program is being created to take the school from a model where science was taught by individual teachers at each grade level to a singular science specialist who will teaching all grades and classes. This past year was spent talking to grade level teachers about their total curriculum (including science) and then designing a new program, that includes not only science, but technology, reading/writing, engineering, the arts, and math. This program will be a hands-on, constructionist approach to teaching science, focusing not only on content, but problem-solving, and cooperative learning, allowing students to be creative and reflective as they develop an excitement for science that will take them into a more rigorous middle and upper school program. The program will also include introducing the students to rapid prototyping with software and equipment like laser cutters and 3D

The idea for this unit came from  @ taralynnakamoto One lesson from this past year was used to teach the students about things like mass, energy, motion, gravity, friction, etc. We also wanted them to learn and use design techniques (for example, the design process, and how to attach object together) and engineering concepts like weight distribution, strength, stability, structural integrity, etc. First we used a thinking routine from Harvard University Graduate school of Education's Project Zero group, Agency by Design. This particular activity asked student to look at an object and record its parts, purposes and complexities. By dong this, the students had to really think about the object, how it was made, why the designer/inventor might have done things a certain way. The parts and their purposes was pretty straight forward, but complexities gave them a little trouble. However, when one student shared their thoughts, it made sense to the rest. For example, one of the ways t

Visit the Makerologylab Check out what's going in the Lower School at 'Iolani School in Honolulu, Hawaii. This is the link to the new and improved blog, sharing the exciting things the K-6 students are doing in the Design Lab and the Tech Lab.